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Mass Effect: Andromeda – Creating the Game’s First Alien Race – The Kett

Game Informer is continuing its exclusive look at various components of Mass Effect: Andromeda with today’s video being about the creation of the game’s first race, the Kett. Bioware has been aiming for a much more “organic” look and feel for the Andromeda races, something exemplified in the Kett. The more organic feel of the Kett extends to their armors, structures and just about every other constructed aspect of Kett culture.

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– Horizon Zero Dawn: An RPG that Plays Like an Action Game

The Playstation YouTube channel has a great new video to show how the world for Horizon Zero Dawn was created. Managing Director Hermen Hulst likens HZD as a role playing game that plays like a shooter, something that Guerrilla Games is well-known for. The game’s team shows off some of the locations within the game world and speaks about the challenge of creating something wholly open world role-playing environment.

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Panda Global Announce Release Dates for the Panda Global Rankings v2 for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

Released just before Get On My Level 2016, Panda Global’s first world rankings of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U players was the first real attempt to create a unified ranking system for this iteration of Smash. Similar to the Melee It On Me top 100 for Super Smash Bros. Melee, this player list acted not only as a who’s who of top players in Smash 4, but also as a guide for tournament seeding and a sort of “shopping list” for esports teams, looking to pick up unsigned players within the top 50.

A lot has changed since that initial list, with players yo-yo-ing between the top positions and new talent from across the USA, Japan and Europe elbowing their way into that top 50. With that in mind, Panda Global and the PG Stats team are compiling a new top 50 ranking for 2016, planned to release ahead of Genesis 4 in late January.

There are still two tournaments this year which will count towards this PGR version 2, those being 2GGT: ZeRo Saga and the UGC Smash Open. With much of the Smash 4 community vigorously debating who is in the top ten, let alone number one, this list will no doubt a hot button topic for the first half of 2017.

Source: PG Stats

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BlazBlue: Central Fiction Shows Up on the List of PlayStation 4 Pro Enhanced Games

The beefier version of Sony’s latest console, PlayStation 4 Pro, launched on November 10; alongside upgraded hardware–which helps stabilize framerates for any game–there’s a growing list of “PS4 Pro Enhanced” games, that will support 4K and HDR features on compatible TVs.

The Japanese PlayStation 4 site recently published a list of games that includes a few confirmed Western titles, like KNACK and inFAMOUS Second Son, but also mentions Asian games. Among them figures BlazBlue: Central Fiction.

There’s a thread on Reddit with a few mixed impressions about the feature, but it seems that the 2D fighter’s visuals improve–with the right setup.

Currently, no other fighting game is listed offering this support.

Sources: Sony Asia via Gematsu; Reddit

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Fantasy Strike Is Coming to PlayStation 4, Playable at the PlayStation Experience

The PlayStation Experience is going to be quite the convention for fighting game fans, as Sony has announced another fighting game that will be on the showfloor from December 3rd to 4th. Created by the author of “Playing to Win” and designer of Yomi and Puzzle Strike, David Sirlin’s Fantasy Strike will be at the PlayStation Experience, planned for a future PS4 release. For those who aren’t familiar: Fantasy Strike is a fighting game which aims to vastly lower the entry barrier for fighting games, by having most inputs be assigned to a single button.

No quarter circles, 720s or pretzel motions here: all special move inputs are assigned to one button press. Crouching has been removed and throws can now be countered by pressing nothing. You did just read that right, taking your hands off the stick when someone tries to throw you will initiate a “Yomi Counter,” reversing the throw with a cool reversal animation and giving you a full super bar.

Fantasy Strike is still in early development, but David and his team have so far implemented eight characters from the initial ten available in the Yomi card game, with the team planning to add more characters, more modes and GGPO matchmaking into the final product. Fantasy Strike is also coming to PC, and is actually playable in a pre-alpha state–but it does require a Patreon donation for access.

If you are at all interested in the concept of a fighting game which cuts through the complexity of input systems to get to the juicy core of mindgames, spacing, footsies and so on, swing by the Fantasy Strike booth at the PlayStation Experience to try it out for yourself.

Sources: PlayStation Blog; Fantasy Strike